Beehive-Inspired Vertical Farm is a Self-Sufficient Mini Ecosystem for London
Busy little London bees might love a chance to live in this green building set alongside the Thames and the London bridge, but it's actually meant for humans. Covered in foliage, this honeycomb tower is part vertical farm and part residential building combined to create a mini eco system. Fully self-sufficient, the London Tower Farm proposal by Mexican firm Xome Arquitectos collects its own rainwater, generates energy, and grows food for residents in the center of the building. Xome Arquitectos began their design based on the premise that by 2050 more than 70% of the world’s population will live in an urban environment. The tower’s facade was based on the strategy of carbon, life’s building block with the atomic number of 6. + Xome Arquitectos Via ArchDaily Images ©Efecto Veintiuno
A beautiful cob home in England
Which means, "Where are you going? It's getting dark, so come in and take a drink". If you're interested in English accents you can listen to the Somerset accent on the BBC The home is the work of Lisa and Rich who built the house with clay from the stream that runs just out of view in this picture. They collected roundwood of Pine and Hawthorne thinned from the local woodlands to build the frame of the home. If you want to build with cob then you must test the quality of your clay. Make compact balls of the mixes about 6cm diameter.
Eco*Dome « Alter*Native ~ Holistic*Être
La Terre c’est de l’Or dans les mains de l’homme sage ! Tout ce qui est carré est Terrestre, tout ce qui est rond est Céleste ! La terre est une matière première ! L’homme l’utilise comme matériau depuis des millénaires pour construire des maisons, même en France. Construire une maison en terre ? A l’encontre des idées reçues, ce système de construction est possible pratiquement partout. Voyage en ma Terre Première La terre possède une caractéristique unique : elle peut être mise en œuvre de façons très diverses. Nader Khalili, le père du concept des EcoDôme Nader Khalili, un architecte américain d’origine iranienne (il a fait ses études en Iran, en Turquie et aux USA), concevait à l’origine des gratte-ciel. Puis, suite à une demande de la NASA, il a élaboré un concept de maison pour les missions spatiales sur la lune, ceci en utilisant le matériau disponible localement : la poussière lunaire. Il reçoit le prix Aga Kahn d’Architecture en 2004. alors que dans les pays occidentaux, Source :
index
French architecture firm targets China’s pollution and population problems with cutting-edge ‘farmscrapers’
Solent News/Rex / Rex USA/Solent News/Rex / Rex USA French architecture firm Vincent Callebaut Architects has designed a series of six ‘farmscrapers,’ which they hope will go up in Shenzhen, China. To combat soaring population and pollution problems in China, a French architecture firm is looking up — and going green. Vincent Callebaut Architects has designed a series of six sky-high "farmscrapers," futuristic residential and business towers equipped with wind turbines and solar cells to create renewable energy. "Our view is to turn each constrain into an opportunity and convert waste into renewable natural resources," the company said in a statement. The eco-friendly castles in the sky, planned to go up in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, will measure 1,300 feet high and have 111 floors each. Solent News/Rex / Rex USA/Solent News/Rex / Rex USA Each of the ‘farmscrapers’ will be 1,300 feet tall and have 111 floors. Each pebble-shaped level houses a suspended garden on its exterior.
Cloughjordan
Cloughjordan Cloughjordan is an ecovillage in the process of being established in Co Tipperary, Ireland. We visited in Jan 2013 as guests of Pat and Wendy Malone, and here are a few photos from the visit. The Village has planning permission for 130 dwellings, of which about fifty are currently built or being built. Sites are for sale on the open market, and are selling much more slowly after the economic downturn. The planning requirements are that the houses be situated fairly close together, (to benefit from a common district heating system) be at least two stories high to reflect the local vernacular style, and be of a very high standard of insulation, finish etc. It is interesting to see how the initial vision and planning regime for different ecovillages results in different emphases. in a highly sophisticated boiler, or, in the sunnier times of year, heated in Ireland's largest solar water heating panel installation, then sent down piping costing about 60 euros per metre
Retrofitting our Skyscrapers For Food and Power
Nicolai Ouroussoff writes about all the new glass towers architects are designing in New York these days; they are lovely things, but what will power them or feed their occupants in years to come? Green roofs won't do it, they are too small. Daekwon Park has a great idea, seen in the 2008 Evolo skyscraper competition: a way to reunite the isolated city blocks and insert a multi-layer network of public space, green space and nodes for the city. Clipping onto the exterior of existing buildings, a series of prefabricated modules serving different functions would be stacked on top of each other, adding a layer of green space for gardening, wind turbines or social uses to make new green façades and infrastructures. There are modules for vertical gardens and connections to other buildings through a network of skywalks; Wind turbine units and program units that could serve many public functions.
Ecovillage
A Model For Sustainable Living Within the Findhorn Ecovillage at The Park, sustainable values are expressed in the built environment through our ecological houses, innovative use of building materials such as local stone and straw bales, the beauty in the architecture and gardens, and applied technology in the Living Machine sewage treatment facility and electricity-generating wind turbines. Sustainable values are also expressed in the community’s social, economic and educational initiatives.
Modern Underground
Modern Underground Homes "As an architect, I'm ashamed of what my fellow professionals and I have done during the last fifty years. What do we do? Look around you: America's best land: destroyed, nature: crushed under buildings and parking lots, resources: squandered, energy: wasted. The saddest part is that we know better and still do nothing about it. We actually know how to build without destroying land." Malator Earth House in Druidston, Pembrokeshire, Wales, built in 1998 and designed by architects Future Systems for a former Member of Parliament. The roof of the Malator house is entirely covered in local grasses and the bulk of the home closely imitates the neighboring hills. Malator Earth House is barely noticable from the road. storiesofhouses.blogspot.com Villa Vals, Switzerland. Villa Vals, Switzerland. Aloni, Antiparos Island, Greece. Aloni, Antiparos Island, Greece. Edgeland House in Austin, Texas. Base Valley House, Japan. Base Valley House, Japan. Bolton Eco-House.
Brithdir Mawr
